And Why Was It Yesterday?

Why was ANZAC day yesterday?

Because in 1915, April 25 was the beginning of Gallipoli.

Gallipoli appears to have been a British attempt to completely eliminate the entire ANZAC force as quickly as possible by letting the Turks Ottomans shoot them.

65,000 Australian and New Zealand troops are present; 26,111 become casualties, including 8,141 dead in almost a year of fruitless fighting.

ANZAC Day

I know a couple of people from down-under.

My hat's off to them.

Play Stupid Games

Win Stupid Prizes.

Theory Against Reality

Most people know the Monty Hall Problem.

There's lots of ways to express how the math works and that changing your answer improves your odds.

But it doesn't change a niggling practical bit.

If the prize is, indeed, behind Door Number 1 and you picked door number 1...

Changing your answer means you lose.

Improving your odds doesn't guarantee a win.

Try this at a party.  You will see some really pissed off people who lose despite doubling their odds.

Looks Like I'm Going To Live

Just got back from seeing my primary care physician at the VA.

I'm pushing the upper limit of 'good' on several things, but nothing is over.

The only scary thing is a critical vitamin D deficiency.  This is despite eating more of the foods with it and getting more outdoors time.  The doctor says this is very rare for pasty white boys.  Getting a huge supplement for that to see if it helps.  If it don't... dunno.

The B12 deficiency has been corrected with a multi-vitamin.  We're happy to see that.

Diet and exercise didn't move my weight even an ounce.  But we're really just starting on the exercise thing again.

I renewed my complaints that my legs fucking hurt and that it affects my mobility.  I declined gabapentin again.

Getting new orthotic inserts too!

It Explains Much

The NRA doesn't spend any money in Florida.

At least not on candidates.

These self-same candidate, whom got nothing from the NRA return the favor by giving nothing back.

It makes a lot of sense, all we do is threaten them with the stick, and offer no carrots.

I cannot help but notice that the advancement of gun rights stops dead in Tallahassee just about the same time the NRA/ILA stops funding candidates.

It might not be a causal relationship, but it's a heck of a coincidence if not.

Blame It On The Moon

 My previous best with the S5:

 New best with the SX20.  Kind of cool I managed to catch the moon at nearly the same phase, huh?

This is with an amount of digital zoom.  I want to say 60x.

Zoomed in and compared (Click for much larger):

At 1x it sure is a tiny moon!

I Know Why I'm Still Here

But I admit, I'm surprised that so many others are too.

Yesterday was The Rapture, in case you missed it.

Fresh M3 M4 Pic

Kaylee, an M4gry, with an M3 bipod holding her up using the rebate in the barrel.

I should have taken this pic yesterday, but I wanted to play with the camera in mostly cloudy conditions.

Chon Moses Blowning

One of the local pawn shops has a Chinese made clone of an Ithaca model 37.

Marked at a quite reasonable price, but just enough to keep me from checking the couch.

I admit I've wanted an Ithaca for a while.

I want one in the same way as I've wanted a Browning Auto-5.

Just slightly less than the current owner wants to sell it.

My problem with getting more shotguns is I've got two already.  I don't use them for anything.

I have the 870 because I think every gun owner should have a pump or auto shotgun at minimum.

The Model 12 Heavy Duck came to me via Willard for fixing it.  He had the same look on his face when I figured out the problem in a couple minutes that I do when my buddy JT, calmly, explains a simple fix to a computer problem to me.

The model 12 is iconic and interesting!  It's a neat gun to take apart and Grok in fullness.

The Ithaca has the same appeal.  Assuming the Chinese didn't change all but how it looks.

Bigger Chore

Dusting all the AR's is a small chore compared to dusting all the Mosins...

I swear they breed.

I hear them in there.

Grumbling in Finnish, Russian and Chinese.

Full-On Puttering

Dusted the AR's.

All of them.

There was once a time when I would have called you crazy to suggest that I'd even own one.

Now I'm edging into needing a second M12 rack.

I know I'm not the only one in this position.

Since I had them out, I took the opportunity to rearrange things somewhat.

FuzzyGeff's are now much less accessible and mine are more...

This should save some cussing getting at my M16 clone.  His only move when he comes to visit, which is annual at best.  It's been too long.

I think storage for my guns is at capacity.  It doesn't slake the thirst for more guns.  I just might have to get more creative with storage and display.

Countin' rifles on the wall... that don't bother me at all...

"Heart Attack" Update

Now that I'm done panicking, I can tell where the pain is actually originating from.

The cartilage of my sternum is really sore.  My back between my shoulder blades likewise.

I did some stretching, reaching and bending and got some epic cracks and pops from my back and it feels a ton better.

With my back all twisted up like that, it's no wonder I didn't sleep for crap last night.

For bonus panic attack fun!  When I laid on my side, exhaling would cause a twinge of pain from my sternum and fire off the fear response all over again; but only if I was just if I was on the edge of falling asleep.

Edit to add:

I also have two other recurring problems which makes it hard to tell if something is seriously wrong. 

I get heartburn at random; I just can't handle the diet that cures that! BLECH!

I also have an allergy induced inflammation of my chest wall.  So I get symptoms in the spring most often, this irritation makes me sit and move at odd angles to seek relief which tosses out my back, causing more pain and more contortion to find relief.

I recently saw a meme where they asked you if you'd like to be 10 with everything you know now or 45 with a huge sum of money.

I pick 10.  Knowing the roadmap of all my mistakes means I could have the huge pile of money by the time I made 45 again.  Never mind that I'd be getting a full ride scholarship to college for to become an officer rather than enlisting.

Am I Having A Heart Attack?

No, but here's a panic attack to make your heartburn and twinged back more fun!

I was moving things around to take the bipod pic and after I bent over from getting the M3 bipod out for the M16A2 pics I had a sudden numbness in both arms, but mostly in the left.

That was alarming, and the alarmed response made me feel dizzy too and fluttery and...

Well, panic attack!

The Lovely Harvey had come home early for pierogi casserole and being a former CNA took my blood pressure and heart rate.

BP good, heart rate fine.

Heart was still POUNDING from being afraid, but the rate was way down from peak panic.

So I took a nice, hot, relaxing shower and laid down for an hour or so.

I'm feeling a ton better.

Knowing you're having a panic attack and doing something with that knowledge are not within my sphere of influence.

PS:  Make that recipe!  It's very good.  I recommend heating up the cream cheese and getting it good and blended with the chicken broth before you get it going.  Also disperse the cheddar cheese well within the pot, stirring at the halfway mark ruptures the half-cooked pierogis and robs it of some if the presentation value; but not the flavor.

Incompatible

The M3 bipod doesn't work with the heavier barrel profile of the M16A2.

It can't open all the way and is a precarious perch for when you're looking for some support.

I can't recall ever seeing a clamp-on bipod for the A2.

Interestingly, the M3 bipod works with the M4 thanks to the rebate for the M203.

Clamp On Bipod Comparison

The Poles basically copied the M3 bipod that was, briefly, issued to US troops with the M16A1.

Looks almost the same, works the same.

wz.88 on Left, M3 on Right.

M3 on Top, wz.88 on Bottom.  They're spring loaded so you have to hold them closed somehow.

The M3 bipod came along after the M16 rifle, so it was designed to fit an existing place on the front sight base.  The wz.88 was designed with the rifle, so a space was built into the rifle to fit it.

There's a rim forward of the gas-block.  The bipod fits between that rim and the cleaning rod lug.

The wz.88 bipod even has a wedge cut out of it to allow some swivel with the cleaning rod attached.  The M3 bipod doesn't have this because the M16 never required cleaning and thus has no cleaning rod cleaning kit, including a multi-piece rod, are stored in a pouch or in the buttstock.

New Camera New Bag

My old bag didn't quite fit the new camera.

So I got new one.

I am not sure if this little pocket is telling me that this its maximum capacity or not.

By The Numbers

The weregeld is set at $13,346,225,100,000.00.

The non-hispanic black population of the USA is 37,144,530.

That means that, thanks to Mr Shabazz refusing the generous gifts of emancipation and freedom every black person is now on the hook for $359,305.26.

Staggering what is owed, isn't it?

Not Sure If Good Or Bad

I've been using Flickr to host my pictures that I hotlink to on the Blog for 11 years!

I've been paying for Flickr Pro for the past seven.

Prior to that I'd been using Webshots until they were acquired by some other company who wanted real money to host my pics.

Today I am informed that Flickr, was bought by someone called SmugMug.

The sale of Flickr to Yahoo! then Verizon was painless and no changes happened, so I have hope that all of my links will remain.

No idea what their firearm pic policies are, but guns aren't specifically mentioned in their terms of service.

Fingers crossed.  I really don't wanna sort out 13gb of picture links over 13 years of blogging.

Dear Mr Shabazz

Not one square inch of Florida was stolen from you or your people.

Your solution to your distant, African, ancestors being sold into slavery by another African people is reparations in the form of handing you Florida in its entire exclusively for blacks.

Since you bring up reparations, OK, let's have them.
You and your kind owe 360,222 lives to us white people.

Those people died to emancipate your ancestors from slavery.

They paid the ultimate price to give you the precious gift of freedom.

What are you doing with that gift, you ingrate?

Demanding more?

Are you saying The South didn't pay?

The history of Reconstruction says otherwise.

But the idea of creating a homeland for black people where they can live and thrive without the influence of Evol Whitey has been done before.

It's called Liberia.

But let us return to your bill, Mr Shabazz.

Using the national average of $37,050,000.00 for a wrongful death settlement times the number of lives sacrificed we get $13,346,225,100,000.00.

Yes, Mr Shabazz, that's more than thirteen trillion US dollars.  Got that on you?

I will even be FAIR about it and not even apply 153 years of compound interest to the equation.

So until you've paid off the weregeld on 360,222 Union soldiers lives, you can just go fuck off about demanding anything from anyone else.

Urf Dae

Just for Earth Day, I made dozens of little trips to get small things which could have been done in a single trip.  I drove my gas-guzzling 436hp two-seater and didn't even bother using the overdrive gears.

I bought an Aquavit which is shipped from Norway, all the way around the world, and back to Norway just to age it; then to the US. 

The beer pictured above is made in München, Deutschland.  It's shipped to the US too.

For Example!

New Camera has a flash slow-synchro mode.

Natural light:

Normal flash;

Slow-synchro flash:

Slow-synchro is supposed to leave the shutter open a bit longer to let more background light fill in.  Not seeing it here, but testing and experimentation continues apace.

Been Taking Pictures

Lots and lots of wasted electrons learning the ways of the Canon SX20IS.

It's similar to the dear departed S5IS that I think they're the same, but they're not.

Learning is fun!

But it's also time away from the computer where the blogging happens.

Not Her Fault

100 years ago, today, Manfred Albrecht Feriherr von Richthofen was shot down and killed.

I mentioned this to The Lovely Harvey and she exclaimed, "He was a real person?!"

She'd just thought he was a character from Peanuts or the song by The Royal Guardsman.

It's not her fault.

They don't teach much history in schools any more.  You nearly have to be an aviation or history buff to know of him nowadays.

At least she didn't say, "I thought that was just a frozen pizza brand."

I Am Led To Believe That This Did Not Happen

School shooting in Ocala, Florida.

It could not have happened because we passed a totally and completely NOT gun-control gun-control law back in March.

The shooter, being younger than 21 could not have bought the weapon.

The shooter did not use a bump stock, so nobody could have gotten hurt.

The school is a designated gun-free zone, so the shooter could not have brought the gun onto school grounds.

All schools in Florida, as a matter of policy, require non-students to register with the office and get a visitor's pass before entering school grounds.  The shooter was not a student of this school, so he must have gotten such a pass before he realized that he couldn't take his gun into a gun-free zone.

No word on if the shooter was wearing a clear backpack while he lugged a "sawed off" shotgun inside an unsearched and unexamined guitar case.

If the weapons turns out to actually be a "sawed off" shotgun, that too is impossible because you cannot even possess, let alone own an NFA firearm without being at least 21.  Never mind that it would have been impossible for him to make such a shotgun because he wasn't old enough to apply for the Form 1 to get permission.

Back

Yesterday the internet unceremoniously went down at 1114.

I did the normal troubleshooting check of rebooting the router.

No dice.

So I called my provider and reset the router a couple more times and waited while they reset the ONT and another switch remotely.

No dice.

An appointment is scheduled for today, 0800 to 1200.

To my shock, I got a call from a tech right at 1630 yesterday.  He was in the driveway and wondering if he could come and look at it.

Sure!  Says I.

He checks the router.  He checks the ONT.  He checks the wires going from the fiberoptic to the ONT and from the ONT to the router.

All check fine.

He replaces the router anyway.

He replaces the ONT, just in case.

No dice!

He calls his field service center (FSC) and, warming my heart, gets the same hold music I get when I call.

They do several checks.

No dice.

The FSC admits, after a bit of circling, that there was a major outage in my area and I was part of it.

The tech sighs.  Admits there's nothing more he can do, but it's an open ticket.  He gives me his business card and says to call him if we're not back up by 1000.

We weren't.  I cannot find the card.

I call customer service to see if they can forward to the tech that we're not up and would be glad to see him again.

Customer service tells me that there WAS an outage, but that was fixed.  I say, "No, the outage is just smaller now."  She laughed.

She does the same resets as the first person did yesterday and the light on the router changes from red to white!  We're back!

HUZZAH!

SILENCE!!

The intertubes is be down at Casa de  Mcthag.

Got an appointment with the tech tomorrow.

Racism Test

A decent test to see if what that manager did at Starbucks is racism or not is whether he'd have allowed white people use the restroom or loiter without buying anything.

Should be simple enough to find out.

It's hard to discuss this without coming across as racist, but...  here we go.

My culture, lily white that it is, sees "restroom for customers only" and buys something.

When asked to leave, we leave.

For a long time we've been cultivating this stupid multi-cultural bullshit.  This is, unfortunately, reaping what was sown.

The two people who were "discriminated" against don't seem to be aware of how the cultural assumptions in play were supposed to work.

From what I've read, they asked to use the restroom, were denied its use then turned around and hung out for a period of time that was long enough for the manager to stick his neck out and ask if they intended to make a purchase.

They declined to make that purchase.

The manager, following Starbuck's procedures, called the cops and had them "trespassed".

Again, in my culture it would never have escalated to the manager having to ask me if I was going to buy anything.  There'd have been a charcoal flavored coffee beverage at my hand already before I sat down to socialize with my friend.

This is not a case of racism, this is a clash of cultures.

The ultimate cure, really, is to educate these subcultures what the larger culture expects of them with regards to behavior.  The ideal solution is a single culture... no wait, monoculture trends to stagnation.

I don't consider my ultimate cure as racism, because I am damn sure expected to be aware of what all of these subcultures find offensive and make great pains to avoid giving offense.

The time has come where they need to learn what offends me and start avoiding it.

And Willard Was There

1980 – The Republic of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) comes into being, with Canaan Banana (a clear candidate for The Name Game) as the country’s first President and Robert Mugabe as (more powerful) Prime Minister. Freed of the shackles imposed by the white European interlopers, Zimbabwe soars to new heights of prosperity.

Much Tougher Camera

This is the chimera we were chasing that killed the S5IS.

SX20IS is tougher.  Is Warsaw Pact tough!

In color too, because we have the technology!

Nothing Better To Do

Than to play with my camera.

The Loving Embrace Of Baker Act

The Boy has earned himself another trip.

I hate calling when he runs off.

If the cops can't talk him down he's off for 72 hours and the trip doesn't help even the slightest in the long term.

I Wholeheartedly Endorse This Event And Or Product

Give generously!

Only you can provide Miguel with the lavish lifestyle tools and funds required of the no-nonsense, zero-compromise advocate of the repeal of the NFA and Hughes amendment to The FOPA.

Only your generous and non-tax-deductible contribution will allow the gravy train to slosh over and overflow my outstretched cup him to hire the skilled assistance required to achieve victory!

It is my rightful share of the graft!

He will need someone to help his tireless efforts!

Back From The Dead

This is my mom's old Minolta XG-A 35mm SLR.

I'd thought it dead and just couldn't bear to toss it because I remember telling me how expensive it was.

Turns out the death was from the silver cell batteries in her bag all being well past their use-by dates.

The MS76 battery turns out to be the ever popular 357 batt, and the camera actually powered up!

It doesn't need much power to run, but it needs SOME power to run.

I got some 35mm Kodak Gold 400 film and we shot up half a roll in wholly inadequate light.  Mom's flash having been eaten by leaking batteries when I'd inherited the bag.

It's got three lenses total, one being telephoto from her birdwatching days.  JCPenny/Pentax brand made just for Minolta cameras.  Kinda neat!

ISO

I misremembered which was the better ISO setting for my camera.

Low is less noisy.

Setting it to 80 instead of 1600 sure takes care of that!

I was getting concerned my new camera wasn't as good the dead one.

I also couldn't compare since you can't get past the "Lens Error" to see what the settings were.

Got some accessories coming so I don't lose my investment in filters.

Pitchur Taychür

The glory that is ebay!

The Canon S5IS is dead.  Long live the Canon SX20IS!

Phone versus camera...  FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

Ian And Karl Talk To VICE

The first segment is NSFW.  Don't say I didn't warn you away from the ICK if you rewind to the beginning.

From The Desk Of Alex Garland

Dave, remember back in film school when were talking about shots we were going to do?  You know, that whole shots that really belong in another genre discussion we had?

You, owe me a coke!

I just got my "shot through a glass of water on table focused on two lover's hands," into a FUCKING SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE!

And the best part, Dave, is the rest of the movie is pretentious twaddle!  You compare this to 2001 and Kubrick seems like a documentarian explaining how to get to Saturn Jupiter!

Hell, his ending makes more sense!

The monkeys at the beginning of 2001 are more likeable and have more emotional range than I let my actresses get away with.  Oh, and you've seen them in other projects.  You know they can actually act, I DID NOT LET THEM!

I'm totally going to get an Oscar for this, and you owe me a coke.

--Alex

What Dick's

Apparently Dick's Sporting Goods is planning on destroying their stocks of snowflake melting rifles; rather than returning them to the manufacturers for credit/refund.

The announcement did wonders for their stock value, losing 5.52% of value per share as it dropped from $34.97 (opening price and high price of the day) to $32.86 at closing Friday.

Even more "good" news for DKS shareholders is the stock is down from $52.31 in April last year.

They're not doing well overall and keep alienating a core constituency.

Something they need to start teaching in business schools is how to determine if the people complaining about your business and products you sell are actually customers or not.

Threats of boycotts from people who aren't customers matter little.  Threats of boycotts from people whom aren't even potential customers matter not at all.

Telling customers they're wrong for wanting to buy something from you?  Yeah, that matters.

Wells Fargo and Bank of America should probably take some notes.  Delta and Citibank are contributing examples as well.

The NFL could not be reached as they were protesting something or other.

PS:  The decision to destroy stock rather than return it is the maximum financial damage they can do to themselves here.  They've paid for the rifles and now are going to pay more to have them destroyed.

PPS:  While Dick's refusal to sell in the future affects future sales, their refusal to do the returns has the minimum damage to the gun makers.  They got paid for those guns, or they will be paid if Dick's doesn't exercise it's no-sale return clause.

Trite

It's an old, trite, expression.

In theory, there's no difference between practice and theory.  In practice, there is.

Which is another way of saying that reality gets a vote.  Reality also has veto powers.

I have a commenter who's taken the absolutist position that if I don't support complete "any weapon I can think of" rights then I am a gun banner.

Because I stated that I wasn't certain that the founding fathers meant artillery.

While also saying that privately owned cannon and warships were around when The Constitution and Bill of Rights were drafted.

I'm of an engineering bent, so certain means something different from when a political science student says it.

The framers of The Bill of Rights certainly meant small arms.  We know this because they wrote extensively about it.  We know from laws of the time that a personal rifle of the same type the standing army used was mandated, and that the citizen was required to bring it and a requisite amount of ammunition with them to their periodic militia muster.

We don't have similar conversations or laws on cannons or mortars.

I looked it up.

But from reading what these people left behind I do think that we probably have a right to heavier weapons.  They certainly did not condemn the ownership of cannon or warships.

We can infer that we've a right to own a warship because Congress has the power to issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal.  You don't write those for a standing navy, there's no need.  Warships need to be better armed than a small-arms locker.

It stands to reason, but is not proven.

Part of the commenters' position is that our anti-gun laws only work because we betray each other.  The way he's phrased it, I think he's accusing me of turning someone it...  I can't really make it out.

I ask this:  Are you obeying those laws, g1335361?  If so, why?

I know why I don't own an M256 smoothbore.  First off, I can't afford the mount.  Secondly, there's none for sale.  Every company that makes this gun doesn't sell to civilians.  It's perfectly legal for me to own one too.  Just plunk down the cash, fill out a Form 4 for a destructive device, pay the tax and wait for the approval process (and grumble about having to pay $200 and wait when my right to such things is encumbered with the reality of the process).

But it doesn't matter since nobody sells them, with or without the M1A1 that I'd definitely want to go with it.

Did you know that the companies who make tank guns and tanks aren't prohibited by any law from selling to me?  They've made that decision on their own.

So having a right to own something that's also legal to own doesn't guarantee I will own it.

He mentioned owning nukes.  The favorite anarchist pro-gun reductio ad absurdum.

Since he's taking the position of any weapon I ask, "what about any person?"

You OK with a felon owning a nuke after their release from prison?

Someone who's mentally incompetent?  Someone who cannot understand what the shiny red button does?

Reality is stickier than theory.  Practice must bow to reality in ways theory never does.

If admitting there's more going on than a simple theory makes me a gun banner; fuck off bitch!

Admitting that there might be a practical upper limit to what a citizen should own for weaponry doesn't mean I demand the banning of small arms.

But then, I am what the Anarchist/Libertarians call a "statist"...  A statist, JUST LIKE THE FOUNDING FATHERS WHO FOUNDED A STATE WITH THE CONSTITUTION.